Mixing Antifreeze Brands

[Habebty]

After cleaning out the heat exchanger, I topped up the antifreeze mixture then read the back of the bottle - " do not mix different brands of antifreeze" or something similar it said. Oh ****! I thought, or should I not worry as they were both quality brands of glycol ethanol. Is this just a marketing ploy?

 

[VicS]

It's not the brands that should not be mixed its the different types.

AFAIK know all antifreeze in the UK is ethylene glycol based although in some countries low toxicity propylene glycol based antifreezes are also available. (Maybe some methanol based antifreezes are still available but if they are i don't know which they are)

Even within the ethylene glycol based antifreezes different inhibitor systems are used which are not compatible with each other!

If you can identify the type then different brands of the same type may be compatible but the only safe solution is not to mix at all.

the colour is not a guide because AFAIK there is no universal standard for the colours.

There are antifreeze top-up solutions available that are compatible with all types so that does make things a little easier.